


who are we now?

by wibblywobblyshuttityupupup



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22638163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wibblywobblyshuttityupupup/pseuds/wibblywobblyshuttityupupup
Summary: let’s just pretend cacw never happened and bucky and nat meet again after too long apartred room references
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

_I slowly opened the door, letting it_ _click softly shut behind me and I turned. In front of me stood the one man who had treated me like a human being, and not the weapon I was made to be._

_"Talia." His voice sounded like a calm breeze drifting over a sparkling lake in the heat of summer_

_"James." I breathed back, no louder than a feather dropping. I ran into his arms quicker than a heartbeat and he stumbled back from the sudden added weight. A laugh escaped his lips. I looked up into his brown eyes lifting my hand to move aside the stray pieces of hair; I traced the rest of his face with my fingers, imprinting every single dent, scar and cut into my memories._

_In the darkness of the red room I had found my light._

_The wind whipped wildly outside and rain pelted the roof, I shivered._

_The beginning of a storm._

_His strong hands gripped under my armpits and lifted me up whirling me around and around forcing me to muffle the laughter that had escaped my lips so that we wouldn't be discovered. I signalled for him to put me down. "Talia, I wasn't sure if you'd come."_

_"How could I say no. It hasn't been just us in too long."_

_"It's only been four days."_

_"Exactly." I smiled cheekily at him. We sat down on the training mats together, his arm wrapped protectively around my body and my head leaning deep into his shoulder. This is when I wanted time to just stop. I wanted to stay in his arms forever, for it to be just him and me. Alone. Where I didn't have to worry about not being the best or letting my teachers down. Where I didn't have to constantly look over my should and worry about if I could trust the other girls. I knew I couldn't. However much I wanted to believe that they were my friends, I knew they never would be. I felt him shift closer to me and I turned to kiss him deeply letting my fingers run through his hair. His metal arm shifted down cooling the heat that was radiating off my back. There was still too much space between us. We fell down onto the mats with a thump, both laughing through the soft kisses we laid on each other's lips. It felt like we were rising: Up. Up. Up. Until we were as high as the stars and nothing and no one could ever pull us back down to earth._

_Bang._

_The sound echoed through all the walls of the room and rebounded back to my ears. I instantly pushed myself of him putting as much space between us, but it was too late. She had seen us. Behind the dangerously calm stature of Head Mistress was the smug face of one of the other girls in my room. I was to shocked to do anything other than gape at the two intruders._

_Before I had time to react the cold hands of Head Mistress had found themselves on my arms pinning them behind my back and twisting them at angle that wasn't normal. I saw James leap up but suddenly there were six other instructors pinning him down and all I could hear was the repeating sound of their fists colliding with his face and body. I howled and screamed reaching towards him but all I got was a slap across the face a knee in my stomach. No matter how hard I was hit I still fought to get back to him, though my efforts were useless as a number more hands were dragging me roughly across the room out the door. I screamed his name over and over as if saying it could make him appear next to me. I felt complete hopelessness._

Natasha lurched forward as she was awakened by another nightmare. Her hand drifted up to her cheeks where her remaining tears fell silently down. She wiped them away, furious at herself for still having these nightmares. Knowing the time before she lifted up her phone to check a 4:06am met her gaze, after almost two months of being on an assignment she had thought she'd be able to get in a long sleep.

She changed from her oversized tee to her training clothes and slipped silently out her room to go beat the hell out of a punching bag. She wrapped her knuckles to keep them from splitting and got to work throwing her hits on the already roughed up bag. She immediately felt the tension release from her muscles as soon as the first punch had connected to her target and she let out a breath. She punched and kicked harder and quicker to keep herself warm in the unheated training room and before she knew it sweat was soaking through her top and the rest of the avengers living in the building had just started to wake up. She took herself into the showers and switched it on, turning the temperature up high so that it burned her skin but not so much that it hurt. She rubbed the soars out of her muscles as the water fell in a steady rhythm over her, wondering how she had been so lucky to find herself a family with these people. Sure they could sometimes be a pain in the ass, but they cared for her in a way she hadn't been cared for in a long time and she relished in that.

Natasha made her way to the kitchen to make herself a coffee and to go catchup with her teammates. Clint was the first to see her and welcomed her back with a "What took you so long" and in return Nat picked up the apple laying on the table next to her and aimed it at his face.

"Some people actually take their time to make sure their op goes smoothly Clint." She turned to Wanda, Sam, Tony and Bruce who all welcomed her with a smile and a wave at which she returned and finally turned to Steve and James... James. She froze. The muscles in her legs had stopped working and her brain was no longer sending messages to the rest of her body; all she could do was stand in a state of shock staring at the man who had once been home.

The last time she had seen him had been when her half unconscious body was dragged out of one of the red rooms many training rooms. His face was still as she remembered it, every curve and imprint, however the number of scars that littered his face had increased numerously. His lips were still in the form of a faint smile, a response to a joke Steve had made seconds ago.

"J-James?" The name fell out her mouth before she knew what she was saying and she stumbled back profusely. A look of somewhat recollection crossed his face for a millisecond before it was plastered by confusion and a look that was indecipherable. "Do you two, uhm, know each other?" Steve's voice disrupted the silence the had settled over the room. Before anyone could say a word Nat half-walked-half-stumbled backwards out the room into the hallway, glad to be able to breathe again in the less thick air that had taken control of the room. She walked back the way she came wanting to splash water over her face to calm herself over the the shock of what she'd encountered.Until a hand reached out and grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn around. In front of her stood the man that intruded her sleep and who she thought would never see again.

"I-I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"No. No I don't think so." Came her quick reply before she carried on down the corridor to her room, wanting to get out of situation as soon as possible.

But he did know he. He was sure of it. It might have been the fiery red hair, or the shape of face; but he sure as hell knew her from somewhere. It was like she had turned on a switch in him, something he never knew was there until now. Something about her pulled him in, and he wanted to let in to the temptation, but he was afraid he'd get pulled in too deep and wouldn't be able to find his way out again. And he just stood there, in the middle of the corridor, racking his brain to try and find a glimpse of her in his past life.


	2. Chapter 2

After several long minutes of struggling to breakthrough the thorough mind control HYDRA had performed on him, and not getting a step further, Bucky walked back into the common room feeling utterly drained after fighting the perverse control HYDRA still had over him. He was hopelessly frustrated and angry at himself for not remembering the woman that sent electric sparks through him when their eyes connected. He sank back down next to Steve, and letting his head sink down into his hands fought back even harder against the seemingly unbreakable walls that had been built up in his mind. He ignored the half-hidden stares that the people he had barely known for a month were throwing at him, and barely heard the 'What just happened?' that Steve had whispered to him minutes earlier. As a response he abruptly stood up and mustered a quick 'I'm not feeling great' and instantaneously left the room wanting to lie down before he threw up. Despite the fact that he had the layout of the whole building imprinted into his mind he discerned that he had got lost somewhere along the way to his room on the third level and blaming it on the fact that he was more focused on the woman he had just come face to face with than the direction he was walking, turned and made his way to the stair case to go backup up the way he had to come, not realising the room that he had just walked to was owned by Natasha and that as he had brushed his fingers against the door his hand had been just centimetres from the redheads.

Back in the common room the occupants sent wary glances at each other hazy of the quiet that had seeped its way into the room. Cracking the glass of silence in the room Sam broke out 'So does anyone know what just made the two most dangerous assassins in the world act like two teenagers hiding a summer romance?' 

'It was certainly weird' Clint added, struggling over his words. "I've never known Nat to be so flustered. And I've known her for quite a while."

'We should probably leave it.' Suggested Wanda 'It's their life and we shouldn't be speculating over it'

'Yeah she's right; they'll tell us if they want to, and before then we should stop discussing it.' Agreed Steve. And even though they attempted talking about other things they quickly fell back into the subdued silence of puzzling over the scene that had befallen them.

Natasha stayed in the training room for a further two hours, and no matter how many punches she threw and how sore her limbs got she was unable to get James' face out her mind like she was usually able to, however usually she never actually came close enough to be able to touch him, she didn't even know if he was alive or not. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get back to her normal self, she walked out sweaty and out of breath, infuriated at herself for being so out of control and stuck in the past; but however much she tried not to accept it she knew that her past would always come running back to haunt her and that James, the first person she had let herself feel for, would always be a part of her. And she accepted the fact that he might never remember her; and however much it hurt she decided that it would be for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiii sorry i’ve been so inactive i hope to post more often.  
> all kudos are greatly appreciated :)))))


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